


The Ties That Bind Us

by owlways_and_forever



Series: The Mischief They Create [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted!Sirius, Adoption, Angst, Disownment, Gen, the black family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26037478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlways_and_forever/pseuds/owlways_and_forever
Summary: Being adopted changes everything...and also maybe not so much.
Series: The Mischief They Create [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888561
Kudos: 9





	The Ties That Bind Us

Walburga Black had been raised in a very traditional family, the kind of such noble birth and inherited wealth that ensured that neither she or her family would ever have to work for a day in their lives. She was born and bred to be a wife, a mother, and a society woman. The perfect hostess in every respect. A great deal was expected of her in the respect, and she was aware of it from the day she turned five years old and her family announced her betrothal to Orion. 

But Walburga couldn’t have children. She had been married to Orion for more than seven years, and she had done her best to get pregnant, but it never happened. No matter what she did, Walburga just couldn’t bear a child for her husband. She became stressed out and depressed, and felt like a constant failure. What was she if she couldn’t bear a son to carry on her husband’s name?

It was her mother that suggested adoption. Irma had seen her daughter floundering and losing her way, and thought that having a child to care for might help. They all knew that it wouldn’t be the same. This child wouldn’t be a piece of her body, it wouldn’t carry the noble blood that had flowed through her veins for centuries. But they could raise him to be one of them, and perhaps it would be almost as fulfilling. 

Walburga was skeptical about the whole thing, and when the little baby boy was placed in her arms, she did her best to love him. 

o . o . o

The first two years of Sirius’ life were very happy, not that he would have remembered them. His parents didn’t exactly dote on him, but that wasn’t the way their society functioned. But they hired a nanny who did dote on him, and they seemed to like him well enough. His mother spent time with him every day, usually to read him a story (often extolling the virtues of nobility), and his father looked in on him every night before bed. They loved him, if in their own way.

But on his second birthday, Walburga Black experienced a miracle, and discovered that she was carrying a child. It flipped Sirius’ world upside down. He was moved to a smaller bedroom, darker and more dingy, so that the nursery could be redone before the new baby arrived. 

o . o . o

Sirius didn’t know what made him so different from his brother. He could never figure out why his parents seemed to despise him so much. What had he done to earn their hatred? He couldn’t understand why his parents always said that his brother was the heir to their fortune, but in every other family he knew, it was the oldest son who inherited.

For years, Sirius tried to do everything he could to make his parents happy. He did well with his studies, and he dressed the way they wanted (even though he hated the stiff, itchy clothes). He was always polite and tried never to speak out of turn. But no matter what he did, his mother yelled at him, and his father simply ignored his presence. He even tried to get along with his brother all the time, as difficult as it was sometimes.

Once, when he was eight, Sirius wondered if maybe it was because he didn’t look much like his family. His mother had a round face, flawless porcelain skin, and white blonde hair. His father looked much the same, but with dirty blond hair. Both were stout, and of average height. Regulus had light auburn hair, but otherwise he was the spitting image of their parents, with fair skin and a round face, and a somewhat shorter build, although he was much thinner than either of them. 

Sirius, on the other hand, had a mass of wild, jet back curls, olive-toned skin and a smattering of freckles across his cheeks. He was taller than his peers and lean, and sometimes Regulus called him stringbean when he wanted to annoy him. 

o . o . o

When Sirius got to Hogwarts, he half hoped he would be sent to Slytherin. Maybe it would be the thing that finally earned his parents love. But the Sorting Hat was not so kind, and sent him to Gryffindor instead. He couldn’t fathom why - he never felt particularly brave or courageous. But supposedly, the Sorting Hat knew the answer for everyone.

He shared a room with three other boys, but he only knew one of them. James Potter was from a similar background to him - not quite as lofty, as the Potters had distanced themselves from the aristocratic society somewhat, and ran in more varied circles. Sirius had met James a few times, but they had never really clicked before, and it didn’t seem likely that it would change now. And the other two boys were complete strangers, which left Sirius feeling more apprehensive than ever.

His parents made their displeasure at Sirius’ sorting well known, their lack of communication laced with frostiness. When Sirius finally went home for the Christmas break, he was met with a contempt that he had not encountered before. He didn’t miss Regulus’ eyes as they blew wide in surprise when Walburga struck her eldest son for the first time in his life. 

Sirius went back to school with a faded bruise staining the edge of his cheekbone, and a new attitude. He had been doing the same things for years, hoping that one day it would be enough for them. He had bent over backwards for years, trying to be the perfect son so that they would love him. Over and over again, he had tried to be who he thought they wanted, and he failed every time. So why try anymore? If they weren’t going to love him anyway, he might as well be himself. At least then they could hate the real him, instead of a mask that he wore every day.

Remus was the first of his dorm-mates to befriend Sirius and welcome him into their little group of friends. That was really his personality to a T - the first to forgive, the first to welcome, the first to encourage. Peter followed soon after, mostly because he couldn’t stop himself from laughing at all of Sirius’ stupid jokes and silly antics. James was the most skeptical - he knew enough about the Black family’s reputation, and Sirius hadn’t exactly done much to shirk it in the first few months of term. But eventually, even he was won over, and they became the most tight night quartet that Hogwarts had seen since the Founders.

o . o . o

As the years continued, Sirius grew into himself, exploring every facet of his being until he felt confident in who he was. It wasn’t without challenges. He annoyed people frequently, and not every appreciated his humor. Teachers thought he was too rambunctious, and his classmates sometimes found him disruptive. His relationship with his parents was more strained than ever, and his relationship with Regulus often suffered as a result.

Sirius had never been especially close to his brother, initially because his parents had kept them apart, and then later because he resented the affection Regulus got from their parents. But as he got older, Sirius felt bad about that. Whatever the cause of his parents’ animosity towards him, it was Regulus’ fault. And he supposed that Regulus suffered in his own way - the weight of all their parents’ hopes, dreams and ambitions bearing down on his shoulders. He tried to make things better between them, but maybe it had just been too many years.

Even though Sirius had long ago stopped trying to do things to win over his parents, it didn’t mean that he hadn’t amassed a few notable achievements. And every time it stung just a little bit more when his parents didn’t care, eating away another piece of his bond to them. What broke Sirius, though, was when Regulus had been named the top student in his year. It was a title Sirius had earned twice, and neither time had he been recognized by his family.

He watched his parents fawn over his younger brother during dinner, praising their son as if he had single handedly rid the world of evil. Sirius felt something snap inside of him, thinking of all his ignored milestones and achievements, thinking of all the indifference with which he had been treated for so many years.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Sirius burst out, yelling across the dinner table, unable to hold back the hurt any longer. “I’m your son, why -”

“You were _never_ my son!” Walburga shrieked, her face contorted with rage. “Did you really think that you, you cretin, you… _mongrel_ , could have come from _my_ blood?”

Sirius took a step back, feeling his world shattering around him and crashing down around his ears.

“What does that mean?” he asked, half knowing the answer and half not wanting to hear it.

“They adopted you,” Regulus whispered from the doorway, and Sirius whipped his head around, curls flying. “They told me a while ago.”

“You never told me?” Sirius hissed, the betrayal stinging to his core.

“You were never the son we wanted,” Walburga sneered. “A placeholder, a backup, but never our flesh and blood. You never should have had our name. We should have gotten rid of you as soon as Regulus was born.”

“Mother!” Regulus snapped, but it was too late. The damage had been done. 

In truth, it had been years in the making, but her words snapped the last ties that connected Sirius to his family, and the decision was made instantly.

“Well you don’t have to worry anymore then, I won’t ever consider myself your son again,” Sirius said as he backed away, throwing his hands up in a gesture that was far more casual than he felt, his heart beating a violent staccato against his ribs. “And with any luck, you many never have to see me again.”

He turned on his heel and ran up the stairs, tossing a few meager belongings into a bag. In truth, he didn’t want anything from his parents, but he had a few possessions that had been given to him by his friends, or that he had earned or bought himself. He finished within a minute, and climbed through the window, grabbing the eaves and hauling himself onto the roof. Sirius closed his eyes and twisted, and with an unpleasant _pop_ , he felt himself squeezing through the atmosphere until his feet touched down on the familiar soil of Godric’s Hollow.


End file.
